Foot and mouth in UK
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justintime
Well-known member
The foot and mouth outbreak in Britain certainly brings to mind how devastating something like this could be if it were to show up in North America. The last previous case in Britain occurred in 2001 and there were hundreds of thousands of cattle destroyed in that country in the last outbreak. I certainly hope that they locate the source of the disease quickly.
It is scary to think that it could appear here simply by someone visiting a farm in Britain and returning to North America. I certainly do hope that all the proper procedures are being enforced at all airports in North America. From what I remember from the last outbreak in Britain, some people who had been on British farms prior to , and during the outbreak had to have all their clothes and foot wear destroyed on returning here. I also remember that some people had to stay in hotels for a period of time (approx. 10 -12 days which is the incubation period for F+ M) before they were allowed to return to their farms.This seems to be extreme measures but certainly is warranted if it keeps this horrific disease out of here.
The beef industry in Britain has been seeing tremendous growth and breeding stock have been bringing incredible prices, in the past few years. I am sure this outbreak will affect them substantially.
It is scary to think that it could appear here simply by someone visiting a farm in Britain and returning to North America. I certainly do hope that all the proper procedures are being enforced at all airports in North America. From what I remember from the last outbreak in Britain, some people who had been on British farms prior to , and during the outbreak had to have all their clothes and foot wear destroyed on returning here. I also remember that some people had to stay in hotels for a period of time (approx. 10 -12 days which is the incubation period for F+ M) before they were allowed to return to their farms.This seems to be extreme measures but certainly is warranted if it keeps this horrific disease out of here.
The beef industry in Britain has been seeing tremendous growth and breeding stock have been bringing incredible prices, in the past few years. I am sure this outbreak will affect them substantially.
ELBEE
Well-known member
Should this news "goose the bull" here in the US?
For a karma point does anybody remember what the source of the FMD in England in 2001 was???
Here is a link to the latest
http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/latest/2007/animal-0803.htm
Apparently the USDA just announced a new vaccine with 7 day period for protection post-vacc and non-interference with diagnostic tests.
also a couple of fact sheets and PDFs for your perusal (clapping)
Below is the article from the NY Times
Britain Responds to Disease Outbreak
Article Tools Sponsored By
By JANE PERLEZ
Published: August 4, 2007
LONDON, Aug. 4 — British authorities burned 60 head of cattle found infected with foot and mouth disease on a farm in southern England today as they moved quickly to try to contain any spread of the disease that devastated the British livestock industry in 2001.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown headed a second emergency meeting at Downing Street today, after canceling his English seaside vacation, to deal with the crisis that raised fears of the need for wide-scale slaughter of animals.
The disease, highly contagious among animals, was discovered Thursday at a farm in Guildford in Surrey. The government announced the outbreak Friday evening.
Acting more quickly than in 2001 when chaos gripped the farming industry, the government imposed an immediate nationwide ban on the movement of cattle, pigs and sheep. Farmers within a six-mile zone of the affected farm were asked to examine livestock for symptoms of the disease.
“It’s very important that no one moves their animals until we’ve confirmed the origin” of the disease, said Debby Reynolds, Britain’s chief veterinary officer.
Agricultural officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs donned white overalls and swarmed over the summer green rural region in Surrey, as they imposed a tight cordon around the farm at Guildford and ordered inspections of livestock in the surrounding area.
There was some confidence that the quicker measures would help stave off the devastating spread of the disease in 2001 when more than four million animals were slaughtered and many farmers were put out of business. The loss to the British economy was estimated at about $16 billion dollars mainly from the crippling of agricultural businesses.
Tourism fell sharply, too, in 2001. Today, government officials were at pains to say that the British countryside, now clogged with local and foreign vacationers, was open for unrestricted travel. In 2001, many trails, forests and national parkland were kept off limits after the outbreak.
Agricultural experts said there was hope that the disease could be contained because the farm in Guilford delivers its beef cattle straight to a slaughterhouse, thus limiting the number of places where the disease could spread, agricultural experts said.
Health experts tried to reassure the public that foot and mouth disease rarely affects humans. “It is not a threat for humans,” Hugh Pennington, a professor of microbiology at Aberdeen University, told BBC television news. It is “highly contagious for cattle, sheep and pigs,” he said.
Mr. Pennington said it was essential that speedy actions be taken to stamp out the virus at the local level in Surrey and to investigate whether the virus had spread elsewhere.
The quick ban on the movement of livestock by the government —part of a contingency plan drawn up after the disaster of 2001 — would help, said the head of the national farmers union, Peter Kendall.
After the first discovery of foot and mouth disease in February 2001, it took 72 hours before a ban was placed on transporting livestock, Mr. Kendall said.
Mr. Kendall appealed to farmers to immediately cooperate with the government’s orders, a reflection of the slowness of some responses in 2001. Farm prices were still low after the 2001 crisis but farmers had to be responsible, Mr. Kendall said.
One of the main fears today was a repeat of the massive pyres of burning animals wreathed in white smoke that dotted the English countryside in 2001.
Foot and mouth disease comes from a virus that grows inside the stomachs and intestines of cattle. It then travels into the bloodstream and causes painful blisters in the mouth and blistering in the hooves. Cows produce less milk when affected with the disease, and other animals become very weak.
The outbreak is the third crisis for Prime Minister Brown since he took office a little more than a month ago. A botched terrorist attempt in London and Glasgow occurred in the first week of his tenure, and floods left large swathes of the British countryside submerged two weeks ago.
In 2001, his predecessor Tony Blair delayed a general election until the foot and mouth crisis ebbed
Here is a link to the latest
http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/latest/2007/animal-0803.htm
Apparently the USDA just announced a new vaccine with 7 day period for protection post-vacc and non-interference with diagnostic tests.
also a couple of fact sheets and PDFs for your perusal (clapping)
Below is the article from the NY Times
Britain Responds to Disease Outbreak
Article Tools Sponsored By
By JANE PERLEZ
Published: August 4, 2007
LONDON, Aug. 4 — British authorities burned 60 head of cattle found infected with foot and mouth disease on a farm in southern England today as they moved quickly to try to contain any spread of the disease that devastated the British livestock industry in 2001.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown headed a second emergency meeting at Downing Street today, after canceling his English seaside vacation, to deal with the crisis that raised fears of the need for wide-scale slaughter of animals.
The disease, highly contagious among animals, was discovered Thursday at a farm in Guildford in Surrey. The government announced the outbreak Friday evening.
Acting more quickly than in 2001 when chaos gripped the farming industry, the government imposed an immediate nationwide ban on the movement of cattle, pigs and sheep. Farmers within a six-mile zone of the affected farm were asked to examine livestock for symptoms of the disease.
“It’s very important that no one moves their animals until we’ve confirmed the origin” of the disease, said Debby Reynolds, Britain’s chief veterinary officer.
Agricultural officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs donned white overalls and swarmed over the summer green rural region in Surrey, as they imposed a tight cordon around the farm at Guildford and ordered inspections of livestock in the surrounding area.
There was some confidence that the quicker measures would help stave off the devastating spread of the disease in 2001 when more than four million animals were slaughtered and many farmers were put out of business. The loss to the British economy was estimated at about $16 billion dollars mainly from the crippling of agricultural businesses.
Tourism fell sharply, too, in 2001. Today, government officials were at pains to say that the British countryside, now clogged with local and foreign vacationers, was open for unrestricted travel. In 2001, many trails, forests and national parkland were kept off limits after the outbreak.
Agricultural experts said there was hope that the disease could be contained because the farm in Guilford delivers its beef cattle straight to a slaughterhouse, thus limiting the number of places where the disease could spread, agricultural experts said.
Health experts tried to reassure the public that foot and mouth disease rarely affects humans. “It is not a threat for humans,” Hugh Pennington, a professor of microbiology at Aberdeen University, told BBC television news. It is “highly contagious for cattle, sheep and pigs,” he said.
Mr. Pennington said it was essential that speedy actions be taken to stamp out the virus at the local level in Surrey and to investigate whether the virus had spread elsewhere.
The quick ban on the movement of livestock by the government —part of a contingency plan drawn up after the disaster of 2001 — would help, said the head of the national farmers union, Peter Kendall.
After the first discovery of foot and mouth disease in February 2001, it took 72 hours before a ban was placed on transporting livestock, Mr. Kendall said.
Mr. Kendall appealed to farmers to immediately cooperate with the government’s orders, a reflection of the slowness of some responses in 2001. Farm prices were still low after the 2001 crisis but farmers had to be responsible, Mr. Kendall said.
One of the main fears today was a repeat of the massive pyres of burning animals wreathed in white smoke that dotted the English countryside in 2001.
Foot and mouth disease comes from a virus that grows inside the stomachs and intestines of cattle. It then travels into the bloodstream and causes painful blisters in the mouth and blistering in the hooves. Cows produce less milk when affected with the disease, and other animals become very weak.
The outbreak is the third crisis for Prime Minister Brown since he took office a little more than a month ago. A botched terrorist attempt in London and Glasgow occurred in the first week of his tenure, and floods left large swathes of the British countryside submerged two weeks ago.
In 2001, his predecessor Tony Blair delayed a general election until the foot and mouth crisis ebbed
farmboy
Well-known member
FMD was diagnosed in the UK on 19 February 2001 in pigs at an abattoir in Essex. On the following day, the virus was identified as sub-type O PanAsiatic. Veterinarians traced the outbreak back to a pig farm in the village of Haddon on the Wall, in Northumberland in the north of England. It is thought that the pigs were infected by eating contaminated food waste from restaurants. But exactly how the virus reached the pig farm is still subject to court investigation. Surrounding sheep farms were infected, and with the sale of sheep around the UK, the FMD virus spread rapidly.
karma ;D
Has this ever hit the US DL, it sounds terrible
karma ;D
Has this ever hit the US DL, it sounds terrible
justintime
Well-known member
I live about 3 miles from a large community pasture that has about 3000 cow calf pairs in it each year. In the early 50s ( before my time... I am old, but not that old!!) there was a F+M outbreak and several large pits were dug. Cattle were rounded up and drove into the pits where they were shot by government vets and then buried. I have heard that there were outbreaks in both Canada and the US but I have not heard of any outbreaks here since the 50s. Let's hope that everyone does their job and keeps this continent clean of F+M. In this day and age of global travel in a matter of hours, it will be an extremely hard job to keep some diseases like F+M isolated as it can be spread through clothing, footwear, etc.
garybob
Well-known member
I'm afraid, it's going to, anyway. But, then again, Bang's in MT didn't cause much of a stir. Don't think these guys in the Coffee shop here know about the bridge collapse in MN. Who knows.ELBEE said:
garybob said:
Garybob - you are such an optimist! ;D
farmboy (you googled it didn't you!?) - there was some thought that pork was illegally imported from Asia to England - the pork was from FMD infected pigs and was fed (it is not a danger to humans) in a Chinese Restaurant - the restruant sold the waste food to the pig farmer (several laws were broken - importing the pork, feeding the pigs waste food) - the pigs then became infected and we had a huge mess, an expensive and emotional mess - you get the karma point
I could never figure out why (there was a vaccine but it interfered with testing for FMD so countries would lose their negative status and now apparently there is a vaccine that does not interfer with testing) why Britian felt it was necessary to destroy all these animals instead of vaccinating them - apparently hundreds of family farms were lost or destroyed. Having lived with TB in the northern part of our state and involved on multiple levels the toll that it takes on a family when the gov't says yes we are here to kill all your cattle is enormous -OK sorry I digress
JIT - you are right - there was a big outbreak in the 50s. North America has been free for a long time. One of the reasons that the exotic cattle and semen had to be housed in islands for a long period of time in the 60's and 70s was because Europe had a FMD issue.
This is info on FMD
Disease Foot and Mouth Disease
Other names FMD, Aftosa
OIE List OIE List A Disease
USDA Foreign Animal DiseaseUSDA Agent of High Consequence
Importance Highly contagious viral disease of cloven-hoofed animals that can rapidly spread throughout an area. A quick response is vitally important in containing an outbreak of FMD. State and Federal veterinarians should be immediately informed of any suspected vesicular disease.Severe economic loss and international trade embargoes can result from an outbreak of FMD.
Etiology The FMD virus is in the family Picornaviridae, genus Aphthovirus. There are 7 immunologically distinct serotypes and over 60 subtypes.The virus is fairly hardy. It can survive regular pasteurization procedures, but is inactivated with ultra high pasteurization. The virus can also survive freezing in tissues and drying when in organic material, such as serum. It can remain active for days to weeks on organic rich material in moist, cool conditions. It is inactivated on dry surfaces and by sunlight. FMD virus can survive for 24 hours in the human respiratory tract.
Species affected FMD primarily infects cloven-hoofed animals, including cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, and water buffalo. Other susceptible species include hedgehogs, armadillos, nutrias, elephants, capybaras, rats, and mice.
Geographic distribution The FMD virus is distributed worldwide, and is endemic in Asia, Africa, Middle East, and parts of South America. Epidemics have recently occurred in Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Britain, France, Netherlands. North America, Central America, Australia, and New Zealand have been FMD free for many years.
Transmission Transmission occurs through respiratory aerosols, direct and indirect contact with infected animals.Aerosol transmission has occurred from bulk milk trucks and the human respiratory tract. Feeding of infected animal products can transmit the virus by direct contact. Exposure to contaminated objects such as boots, hands or clothing results in indirect transmission of the disease. The disease can also be transmitted by artificial insemination, contaminated biological and hormone preparations.Sheep and goats are considered maintenance hosts; they have mild disease and the diagnosis may be delayed allowing time for spread of the virus. Pigs are considered amplifying hosts because of the higher concentration of virus particles in aerosols when compared to other species. Consequently, in pigs the disease spreads rapidly. Cattle are considered indicators of the disease because they are generally the first species to show signs of infection; their lesions are more severe and progress more rapidly. Cattle can carry the FMD virus in their pharyngeal tissues for long periods – they can be healthy carriers for 6 to 24 months. Sheep can be carriers for 4-6 months. Pigs are not carriers.
Incubation period The incubation period is 3-5 days for animals in contact with clinically infected animals, and 1-3 days for pigs fed contaminated feed. The peak time of shedding of virus and transmission usually occurs when vesicles rupture.
Clinical signs Consider FMD in animals with concurrent salivation and lameness with vesicular lesions. The vesicles progress to erosions, and are seen in the mouth, nares, muzzle, feet, and teats. Other clinical signs are fever, depression, anorexia, excessive salivation, serous nasal discharge, decreased milk production, lameness, and reluctance to move.
Post mortem lesions Single or multiple vesicles from 2 mm to 10 cm are seen on the mouth, nares, muzzle, feet, and teats. The vesicles may be in any stage of development. Ruptured vesicles leave a red eroded area that is then covered with gray fibrinous tissue. Coronary band lesions are similar, the skin and hoof separate and a line of coronitis appear on the hoof. Pigs may loose a hoof. There may be gray or yellow streaking of the myocardium secondary to necrosis called “Tiger heart”.
Morbidity and mortality Morbidity can be 100% in susceptible populations, however mortality is generally less than 1%. Mortality is increased in younger animals and with more severe strains
Diagnoses The diagnosis of FMD should be suspected in any animal with vesicles in the mouth, especially if the animal is lame. Suspect animals should be immediately quarantined and authorities notified. Diagnosis of the index case is made by virus isolation. Subsequent cases can be diagnosed by ELISA or complement fixation.
Differential diagnosis An index of suspicion must be maintained with any vesicular disease. Differential diagnosis includes vesicular stomatitis, swine vesicular disease, vesicular exanthema of swine, foot rot, and chemical and thermal burns. In cattle, oral lesions in the later stages may resemble rinderpest, IBP, BVD, malignant catarrhal fever and blue tongueIn sheep, later oral lesions can resemble blue tongue, contagious ecthyma, lip and leg ulceration.
Laboratory tests FMD can be diagnosed by virus isolation, ELISA, or complement fixation. Virus isolation and identification must be done on the initial case; subsequently antigen and nucleic acid detection can be used to diagnose additional cases.
Samples to collect Notify authorities prior to collecting and shipping samples.Vesicular fluid, epithelial covering of vesicles, esophageal-pharyngeal fluid, blood, and serum can be used.
Biosecurity Notify authorities is FMD is suspected. Quarantine premise. A quick response is essential for containment of the outbreak. Strict insecurity protocols should be followed for individuals entering a premise suspected or known of having FMD. Because the virus can remain viable and reside in the human respiratory tract for 24 hours, humans exposed to FMD should not visit clean livestock facilities within 2 days of exposure.
Public health FMD rarely infects humans and the disease is not considered a public health problem.
Bioterrorism potential The FMD virus can be easily spread among livestock, and an outbreak could occur by feeding pigs infected meat. As evidenced by the outbreak in the UK, the disease can cause high morbidity and significant economic, social and political upheaval.
